1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to radio receivers, and more particularly to a trainable scanning device and method for radio receivers.
2. Background of the Invention
Radio receivers capable of electronically tuning to a desired broadcast frequency (station) are commonplace today. The desired station is generally selected by a user using one of three methods: manually moving incrementally up or down through the band with a tuning knob or buttons; moving directly to a previously programmed user (preset) station by pushing a button; or using a seek or scan feature of the radio to search the band for stations having a signal strength above a minimum threshold level.
The later method requires a user to hear a sampling of the broadcast on each station and determine whether it is desirable to either select the station or await to hear a sampling of the next station. This method of finding a station presents an inconvenience to the user, since a user is required to sequentially sample each station until he can locate one matching his musical taste. This can often be a long and tedious process for a user.
In addition, during a scan mode, each station is sampled for only a short period of time before moving on to the next station automatically. When the short sampling period coincides with a commercial on a station, the user is prevented from sampling the music available on that station.
During a seek mode a user is required to repeatedly press a seek button on the radio, or at least monitor the seek button to press it to stop seeking. Thus, a user is prevented from focusing his attention on other tasks, like driving a motor vehicle.
Using preset station buttons (presets) has drawbacks as well. A user is required to reprogram the presets when he enters a new area with the radio. For instance, a car radio""s presets are set to desired stations in the immediate broadcast area and will be ineffective once the car leaves the area. Additionally, a user gets accustomed to hearing only the preset stations and may not appreciate when other stations meeting his musical taste (or talk radio, sports radio, etc.) are available.
Therefore, a scan device is needed which analyzes the music a user listens to and seeks only stations that broadcast that style of music, or a style of music selected by a user.
It is therefore an aspect of the present invention to provide a trainable radio scanner which allows a user to scan only radio stations matching a user pre-selected musical style.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a trainable radio scanner which allows a user to scan only radio stations matching a predetermined musical style, the musical style being determined by analyzing a user""s most commonly listened to musical style.
It is yet another aspect of the present invention to provide a method for trainable radio scanning which allows a user to scan only radio stations matching a user pre-selected musical style.
It is still another aspect of the present invention to provide a method for trainable radio scanning which allows a user to scan only radio stations matching predetermined musical styles, the musical style being determined by analyzing a user""s most commonly listened to musical style.
To achieve the above aspects, a trainable radio scanner, in accordance with the present invention is provided which comprises a station monitoring circuit to scan a plurality of radio frequencies and extract audio samples of a predetermined duration from each one of the plurality of radio frequencies having a signal strength above a reception threshold; a memory storing audio classification data and the plurality of audio samples; an audio analyzer to analyze each one of the plurality of audio samples using the audio classification data and to classify each audio sample into a musical style category; and a style discriminator to control a radio station scanning operation of the radio receiver to tune only to preferred radio stations having a radio frequency at which the corresponding audio sample is classified in at least one preferred musical style category, wherein the at least one preferred musical style category is previously selected.
A method of trainable radio scanning in accordance with the present invention includes scanning a plurality of radio station frequencies and extracting audio samples from each one of the plurality of radio stations; classifying each of the audio samples into one of a plurality of musical style categories; determining a user""s preferred musical styles; storing a list of station identification data of radio stations having corresponding audio samples classified in the user""s preferred musical styles; and scanning only to stations identified in the list during a scanning procedure of the radio.